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When out activating a SOTA summit or a VKFF park you may be asked “What shire are you in“? Far from home without an encyclopædic knowledge of shire boundaries this can be difficult to answer. One may have passed a shire sign on the way to the activation, but with all the council amalgamations and name changes not even these can be relied upon.

So, a more modern method of identifying the shire is needed.
Luckily there are online resources that help identify the shire you are in.
All you need to know is your location.
Recipes for each state and territory follow (where available).

Council signs can’t always be relied upon: Harden is merging into Hilltops Shire

NSW

Go to this web site: http://www.olg.nsw.gov.au/find-my-councilThere is a text box labelled: Address (required)
Sure, you can type in your street address.
More usefully, you can put in a GPS coordinate!
The site will then give you the name of your shire. The format accepted is latitude then comma then longitude in decimal degrees. The latitude will be a negative number for VK. Look these up with a mobile phone app such as GP Status on Android or on SOTAwatch for the summit you’re activating.

VIC

Go to this web site: https://knowyourcouncil.vic.gov.auThere is a search box that will accept your suburb. Unfortunately it will not accept a GPS coordinate. Instead use the Use my location link and when prompted ALLOW access to your location on your mobile device.

Look for the “vk shires” file with the .xls type. The spreadsheet has tabs for each state containing all of the shires and their three character codes. It may not be possible to read this file on a mobile device, so in that case share the load and ask the chaser to do it for you from their nice warm shack!

Spotting

Another way to find the shire code is from the ParksnPeaks site. You can self-spot for the shire you’re activating and in the process pull in all those Shires chasers. Just launch:http://www.parksnpeaks.org/addSpot.php

Choose VK Shires as the class of activation
then in SubCat choose your state and after pressing Next you’ll be in the Shires Spot page. Choose the name of your shire from the list under Activating Shire then put in your call and QRG. Press Next and the spot will be launched into cyberspace.
You’ll end up at the VK Shires Status page with your activation listed at the top. Your shire code can be read from the details of the activation. This is probably quicker than downloading and looking up the spreadsheet!

So, go out and activate a shire the next time you activate for SOTA or VKFF!
And you might start asking chasers “What shire are you in?”

A rainy sort of day and I was in the area so decided to activate the Lane Cove National ParkVKFF-0281. The park is 15km north of Sydney city and runs along the Lane Cove River through around 10 suburbs. It is usually only heard about when it catches fire and with houses backing right up to the park that does initiate a big response. The park is also along the route of the Great North Walk.

I had visited this park several times before but still had not completely explored it. This time I had to approach it in a different way being the location for a WWFF activation. From aerial maps I had identified a couple of spots around the perimeter of the park and a spot near one of the the entrances. As it turned out, one perimeter spot on Fiddens Wharf Rd could not be accessed by car as it was gated and the other one at the end of Bradfield Rd was open but restricted to service vehicles. See map here. So I ended up driving right around and going through the DeBurghs Bridge entrance to the spot near there on Riverside Drive. The road had been narrowed down to an access track and the available parking spot was not sufficiently roomy for an activation. So, I proceeded along the road and checked out an area previously unvisited called Tunks Hill picnic area. Here I found a huge and almost empty carpark with lots of green space around. This seemed ideal so I parked at (-33.780747,151.135404), locator QF56NF.

It had been moderately dry, but of course as I set up my antenna the heavens opened. The squid pole was lashed to the back antenna on the car and the far ends of the ZS6BKW attached to a tree and a picnic shelter. The LDG antenna tuner was set up under the car to keep it dry. One thought was that I could transfer operation to a picnic shelter without shifting the antenna, but it turned out to be too rainy and I settled in to make some contacts from the shelter of the car.

It was just after 2pm and first contact was with Warren ZL2AJ on SOTA ZL1/BP-201 on 20m. I moved to 40m and started calling and the first contact there was a park-to-park with Shane VK2TJF in the Barrington Tops at VKFF-0017. Four contacts later another P2P with David VK5KC/3 in Murray-sunset NP VKFF-0373. Propagation was pretty good and I was able to sustain contacts on 40m including with VK5. Thankfully noise was low even though I was 50m from a business premises and 200m from a main road. I was also 200m from EHT powerlines – you can see them in the aerial view.

My only CW contact was on 20m with Ian VK5CZ at Maurice Hill VK5/NE-049. Occupied 40m until 4:40pm during which a surprise P2P contact with Clive ZL4CJR in Fiordland NP ZLFF-0004 was made and then I switched to 20m. There were only four contacts on 20m as there was no DX opening. On 40m a further P2P, this time with Rob VK4AAC/3 in Mt Granya State Park VKFF-0767. Being close to 5pm and with the prospect of battling the Sydney traffic, I packed up in order to escape the park well ahead of the 6pm closing time. As I drove out, it was still raining lightly and I was happy to have 51 contacts in the log, especially for a Tuesday.

A triple-header for the weekend with the John Moyle Memorial Field Day contest, WWFF at Mt Royal National Park VKFF-0362 and SOTA from two summits within the park.

VK2/HU-024 810m 4pts QF57PS in Mt Royal NP VKFF-0362

Headed first to the VK2/HU-024 summit which is just outside the southern edge of the park by a matter of metres. The activation zone to the NE is well within the park and happens to lie along Mt Royal Rd and conveniently there is a cleared space to the side of the road suitable for camping and operating from. Note that not all maps show the correct location of the park boundary or of Mt Royal Rd near the summit. SIX maps and the OzTopo GPS map V7 are OK. I activated from (-32.24473,151.28366) marked on the map with a red “X”. The park boundary and the location of the summit are also shown. There would be an elevation difference of a few metres at most between the summit and the activated location.

The John Moyle is a 24 hour contest starting at 0100z (noon). I arrived at about 12:45pm and walked around the area with my GPS to find the summit and check for the exact park boundary. Once confirmed I started setting up. Weather was warm with clear blue skies and no wind so a perfect day to be out and activating. A 3m metal pole at the side of the road provided a perfect mount for lashing my squid pole. I was able to raise up the base of my squid pole by 1.5m to increase the effective height of the antenna. First contact in the log was at 1:12pm, a S2S with Tony VK1VIC at Mt Ginini. Normally I use a paper log but for contests I just about always use a computer, and so it was for this contest. Well over an hour was spent working through the stations on 40m SSB and then there was a spell on CW. 40 minutes there netted 9 contacts so the pace was leisurely. I used my KX3 and had it wound up to the full 15W output. Antenna was the usual ZS6BKW inverted-Vee with the apex at nearly 10m off the ground and oriented NW-SE. To obtain this orientation, the antenna crossed the road, but with the lowest point being at about 8m it wasn’t going to be a traffic hazard!

Mt Royal Road turnoff

Welcome sign for the Mt Royal National Park

A new three hour block had started so I could rework stations again so back to 40m SSB starting out with 3 S2S contacts. Then hunting and pecking through all the stations calling CQ for half an hour then started calling on my own frequency. The band was pretty crowded but there were still slots available. This kept me busy for another half an hour before it was time to give 20m a go. It was pretty quiet on there with only 2 stations calling from VK6. Maybe I had missed all the action. So back to 40m with the odd listen on 80m. A car full of locals stopped for a chat and find out what I was up to. The road does not go through anywhere so there was less than one car per hour going past. I mentioned my intention to scale Mt Royal and was warned about the presence of tiger snakes.

Antenna and shack at VK2/HU-024

Daytime shack at VK2/HU-024

Nearing 7pm I decided to have a break from contesting and set up the tent. This was pitched next to the metal pole as the amount of free antenna feedline was limited. My operating chair was moved inside the tent and used as an operating table. After a 40 minute break I was making contacts again – still on 40m SSB. After less than 15 minutes I switched to 80m SSB where there was a lot more action. I was able to work stations in VK1, VK2, VK3 and VK4 mainly by calling CQ.

Antenna at VK2/HU-024

Operating from inside the tent was very nice as it kept off the cool breeze, and it really did cool down quite a lot after sunset. The evening was spent operating on 80m and 40m. There was a dearth of stations on CW, just weak rapid fire stations operating in another contest. I was surprised at the lack of activity. I was keen to make a 6m contact as there had been no response to earlier calls. I made a contact with the Blue Mountains radio club station VK2HZ on 80m and asked them to try 6m. They said their 6m operators were in bed – it was only 10:15pm. Still, they were happy to try for a contact on their wire antenna. Unfortunately it was a no-go as they were only just audible to me and I had a fraction of their transmitter power. it would have to be left until morning.

Night time shack at VK2/HU-024

There were still plenty of stations about on 80m and a few on 40m so I kept going. Conscious of my plans for Sunday I decided to turn in at 12:45am when things became a bit quiet on the bands. It was now just CQ callers that I had worked before so a good time to cut it short. I would need all my strength and alertness for Mt Royal!

In the morning I awoke to find it already quite light. My beanie had slipped over my eyes and kept things dark and the lack of light had allowed me to sleep more than expected. It was after 7am and weather was still nice, though overcast and a little crisp. I was back on the radio at 7:45am for a short stint until 8:30am. I was able to find VK2HZ again on 80m and arrange for a 6m contact with their VHF team. This time it was successful over a distance of 183km as they were using a beam rather than a wire antenna. I also was able to just hear a station in Bathurst, but they weren’t able to hear me. The other contacts I made in the morning were on 40m and I found 80m full of ragchewers and nets.

Mt Royal VK2/HU-007 1174m 6pts QF57PT in Mt Royal NP VKFF-0362

Packing up the camp site, shack and antenna occupied an hour and then it was off to the next summit. Driving up Mt Royal road one passes through the Youngville campground area after 5km at (-32.1995,151.3094). It would make a good base if one wanted to stay a few days and operate from the park. Continuing on 3km one reaches a Y intersection with a picnic area directly ahead at (-32.1823,151.3156). At 850m elevation this is the starting point for the walk to Mt Royal VK2/HU-007. A single sheltered picnic table and a park sign marks this location.

Picnic table at the trail head for Mt Royal VK2/HU-007

Parking area at the trail head for Mt Royal VK2/HU-007

The walk starts immediately behind the picnic table and follows the ridge line all the way to the top. There is not just one clearly defined track but a series of parallel tracks that weave in and out from each other. The gradient is steep most of the way, around 2 in 5 so it is not for the faint hearted or infirm. The elevation is 320m over 2km so its a good idea to take breaks along the way. I did not need to climb very far before entering low cloud though the visibility was still fine for following the trail. There are various rock piles along the way providing reassurance that you’re on the right track. Just after half way up there is a rocky outcrop and while it would appear attractive to skirt around it, the best way is to scramble up over it. Further up after an open area one comes to a wall of foliage with seemingly no way to get through. There is a track on the right side to duck and weave around the trees which seemed to be the best approach. I only discovered this on the way back!

Small cairn marks the track to Mt Royal VK2/HU-007

Low cloud even at the bottom of the steep climb

Rocky outcrop half way up to Mt Royal

Overgrown area most of the way up – track on the right

Mossy scene near the top of the climb

Mossy vines near the top of Mt Royal

The rest of the way up has quite a dense wooden canopy with some sections having very little headroom. Near the top there is a faux summit that one can skirt around to the left. One must keep going past here another few hundred metres to reach the destination. The summit holds a trig station with Royal stamped in the vane and is covered with tall spindly trees. The tracks around the trig point are quite well trodden probably due to the presence of a geocache nearby. On the trig point cairn there is a log book with a large rock sitting on it providing little in the way of disguise.

Station at Mt Royal VK2/HU-007

The tree cover near the trig point is quite low so rather than set up on the trig point itself, I set up my squid pole attached to a tree nearby. The antenna wire was woven around some trees and branches and with the dropoff the ends of the antenna were only about 2m off the ground. The usual ZS6BKW was used on the 8m squid pole with the antenna apex at about 7m off the deck. It had taken 1.5 hours to reach the summit and set up so there was still half an hour left until the close of the John Moyle contest at 12 noon. Again I concentrated on 40m SSB and in the time available I was able to snag 8 more contacts. At that point the computer log was closed off and I reverted to the paper log.

Vane of the trig station at Mt Royal VK2/HU-007

Logbook hiding place under the trig station

At contest end I was able to start spotting on SOTAwatch and the first was for 40m CW. Conditions were certainly poor as there were only 2 contacts. After 3 summit-to-summits on SSB I went to 30m CW and made 2 more contacts, one of those being a S2S with Ron VK3AFW. Then I went through 20m CW with no contacts then chased JL1NIE unsuccessfully on 15m CW. On 20m SSB I did make four contacts. There was a successful S2S with JF1NDT/1 on 12m CW then on 15m SSB one contact with a JA and nothing on 30m SSB. Finally I ended up on 40m SSB for a bunch of contacts including two CW contacts on 7090, one a S2S with Tony VK3CAT.

Shack at Mt Royal with PC for contest logging

Once the callers ran out I stayed around for a bit on the summit before packing up and departing about 3pm. Mobile coverage on the summit was pretty good on the Telstra network though there were dropouts. For example, I missed a spot from VK2QR by 15 mins and so did not get the S2S. The signal was up to 3 bars on the phone if positioned in a certain spot, but at other times there was no data. Sitting it just off the ground the signal was coming and going.

View looking west just down from the Mt Royal summit

The return journey was a lot quicker than the climb as the better tracks to take were more obvious and there was a lot less huffing and puffing. I did not need to descend very far before the cloud cleared allowing some visibility of the valleys below. It would certainly be a spectacular spot on a clear day.

Access: Take one train from the major stationShinjuku in Tokyo until the end of the Keio Sagamihara line at Hashimoto (station KO45). Then take the Hashimoto 01 bus for Mikage to stop 14 at the base of the mountain called Tsukuiko Kanko Center mae (35.58643N, 139.280824E). Timetable and route is here. The summit is in the Kanagawa Kenritsu Tsukuikoshiroyama Park. Once starting the climb, there are maps available en-route. Summit at (35.5831N, 139.2787E) PM95PN. Blog by VK2IO.

Access: Take Odakyu line from Shinjuku up to Hon-Atsugi station – about 1.5 hours. From Hon-Atsugi go to through the north exit to bus stand 5 and take the bus for Miyagase 厚20 宮ヶ瀬行 市立病院前(本厚木駅発) Route name 厚木20 Atsugi 20 and get off at Bukkasan Tozanguchi 仏果山登山口. Alternatively take a bus for Miyagase 厚21 宮ヶ瀬行 市内(本厚木駅発) route name Atsugi 21 from the same bus stand. This bus also stops at Bukkasan Tozanguchi. The walk to the summit takes 1.5 hours. Blog by JH0CJH. Track to summit is here.

Access: Take Odakyu line from Shinjuku to Isehara station. From Isehara North gate take bus platform number 4. Take a bus for Ooyama Cable 伊10 大山ケーブル行 route number Isehara 10. From terminal station, take cable car to half way point then continue hiking. This mountain is famous for foreigners so you may find some English natives. Ask for “Ooyama Cable Car?” before boarding the bus. Summit at (35.440799713135, 139.23120117188).
Notes: Good location, very popular so huge number of people. Best to operate on the west side near microwave antenna tower otherwise it may become
difficult around lunch time.

Access: In winter this summit can be accessed from the top chairlift at the Niseko Annapuri ski resort. This lift (and lower lifts) are only open during favourable weather and for a few hours around the middle of the day. Take Jumbo Pair lift #4 and go through Gate 2 and climb up to the south peak. Then walk north a further 400m to Annupuri. No trees here so bring your own squid pole. The AZ is within JAFF-0036 Niseko-Shakotan-Otaru Kaigan Quasi-NP.

The SOTA peak at Mt Solitary VK2/CT-056 in the Blue Mountains National Park VKFF-0041 had been on my to-do list most of 2015. I’d resolved not to attempt it in winter to ensure adequate daylight and to make it a comfortable climb. Last time (and first time) I did this walk I ended up having to walk back in the dark which was “different” but not as much fun. I’d hoped to tackle this one with Phil VK2JDL, but as it turned out he was busy on the last possible day of the year it could be done.

Walking path to Mt Solitary starting at the Golden Staircase

The starting point for the walk is at the top of the Golden Staircase (-33.734348, 150.28237) at elevation 958m which can be found on Glen Raphael Drive along Narrow Neck just west of Katoomba. Descend the Golden Staircase (about 800m) passing Botleys Lookout until the Federal Pass circuit track is reached. Turn right (south) and gently descend by 300m elevation reaching the 4.3km mark. From then on it is an ascent of 300m over 1.8km including a lot of hard climbing and scrambling to reach the summit (-33.7797, 150.3079) QF56DF at elevation 960m. I budgeted two to two and a half hours to do the 6.1km walk, but walking quickly without stopping to take any photos it took one and a half hours. The National Parks site provides all route details and it is also well covered on Wild Walks. The alternative and longer route is to start at Scenic World, descend the Furber Steps and join the Federal Pass circuit there. It adds another 3 km onto the trip. Some of that can be saved by descending using the Scenic Railway instead of the Furber Steps. Details of this alternative can also be found on Wild Walks.

The summit itself is quite a flat area covered with tall trees. This gives a large activation zone and there are plenty of places to put up an antenna. The main consideration is making sure it is clear overhead so that the antenna wire is not obstructed. I found a convenient stump to use as a support for the squid pole. Knowing the difficulty of the walk, I brought along a lightweight 8m pole and removed all extraneous items from my backpack. The pole was able to be inserted into a pocket on the backpack so I had both hands free – and this turned out to be essential during the climb. Conveniently, I had arrived and set up 15 minutes before UTC rollover whereas my alert was for thirty minutes past. There were SOTA stations already active so plenty of scope for summit-to-summit contacts.

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The first object was to work all the activators and I managed four before rollover – all on 40m. Then after rollover hunted for the same activators again. I was calling VK3HRA on his spotted frequency 7032 CW when Nick VK2AOH called me. Somehow I had missed Allen. A whole bunch of activators were spotting on 10m so I went there to look for them. I did manage one S2S with Andrew VK1AD at Mt Taylor in Canberra. All the other summits were too far for ground wave and too close for sky wave. Then I put my first spot up on 10m SSB and that attracted a couple of contacts in VK5, one in VK4 and one in Sydney from VK2BEN. After an hour on 10m I spotted on 6m SSB and attracted 2 stations from Sydney – Cliff VK2NP and VK2BEN again. I had heard Andrew VK1AD work a VK4 at good strength on 6m but Andrew’s signal faded quickly. Unfortunately I was not able to work the VK4. During some free time I put up a “selfie” of my activation on social media. This attracted a certain amount of attention and comment and made for a talking point during contacts. At some stage I’d like to try sending pictures via SSTV from the summit as thus far I’ve only received SSTV from summits in the shack.

Shack and operator on Mt Solitary

After 20 minutes a spot came up on 40m so I abandoned 6m and chased a bunch of activators (VK3MCD, VK2QR, VK1VIC, VK3VTH). I spotted on 10m SSB again and started calling then a spot came up for Greg VK2GSB at VK2/HU-094 who was doing his first activation near Port Stephens in Myall Lakes NP. I was the first contact in his log and it must have been a surprise as it was a summit-to-summit as well as a park-to-park contact.

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Back on 10m I made a bunch more contacts over the next hour with the occasional excursion to other bands to work other summit stations. 10m was in good shape as I was able to make contact with chasers in Melbourne at good strength. This represented quite short skip conditions on this band. Next was a go at 10m CW and this was rewarded with 3 contacts from Melbourne stations with excellent reports.

After half an hour on 10m CW it was late enough to give 40m CW a try too and five contacts were made. Then I moved to 40m SSB and filled a page full of contacts over the next hour. This included two S2S contacts. The sun had moved around and now my spot under the trees was in full sun so the shack was relocated a few metres for complete shade.

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With one hour to go to my planned departure time of 6pm I went back to 10m SSB and started calling there. One contact was made with VK2FJPR in Newcastle who I had worked on 40m and mentioned a possibility of 10m. He was pretty surprised to be able to make a contact and we exchanged 5×3 reports both ways. The good propagation to Melbourne had gone and no other 10m contacts were made. I contacted Rod VK2TWR to try for a 6m contact, but he wasn’t able to hear me so we made it on 40m instead.

A spot by Lewis VK6FLEW on 40m attracted a QSY, but Lewis was operating on 7.144 and the afternoon net on 7.146 prevented any copy. It was then time to close down after operating for 7 hours. My 4200 mAh battery was just about exhausted and the KX3 kept switching off. It was a longer activation than expected and I was restless to complete the return journey. Last time I had done it mostly in the dark and had not planned to do that again this time, after all I had photos to take! One of the concessions when reducing weight was to eliminate cameras from my backpack. The DSLR weighs around 3kg and had to go. I even rejected the compact camera with the intention of relying on the rarely used mobile phone camera. That’s the mark of a lightweight activation!

One of the many camp sites along the Federal Pass

My Android-based mobile phone has an aftermarket high capacity battery, but before I started the return walk it was down to around 30% capacity. During the day I was running RRT, ParksnPeaks and Port-a-Log apps at various times, and usually multiple simultaneously. This no doubt would have required additional internet traffic (and therefore battery consumption). Luckily mobile phone coverage was good with few dropouts. For the first time on an activation I had used RunKeeper to record my progress on the walk so the GPS was running during this time. On the return walk I also used RunKeeper and so was able to obtain an elevation profile for the day’s outing.

Glimpse of the Three Sisters through the trees

The return walk was a lot more difficult than the morning walk even though I had had plenty of recovery time. I doubt the endorphins were flowing like they are when you’re striving to reach a summit. Luckily I had plenty of rests to take photos. Descending from Mt Solitary I ran into some people who were about to launch a toy drone. As I continued further the drone appeared in the skies above along with the characteristic buzz. It seemed to follow me for quite a way and my thoughts were that the country was quite inhospitable in the event that a drone recovery was required, though it seems that was not necessary. I had bypassed the sidetrip to the “Ruined Castle” on the way in and did the same on the way out. Its another steep climb and would add time to the trip.

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The most difficult part of the trip was the return climb up The Golden Staircase. The track is well formed unlike the last section up Mt Solitary, but it is so steep with metal railings and for such a long distance that it is pretty difficult at the end of a long day with not much left in the tank. There are some nice glimpses of the Three Sisters along the way, especially from Botleys Lookout near the top.

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I arrived back at the carpark just as the sun was setting so timing was perfect. After taking time to watch the sun go down, take photos and rehydrate, I did some chasing for the EU activators. Even on CW it was not possible to work any of them due to low signal strength so after half an hour I was on my way.

Greeted by a stunning sunset climbing to the top of the Golden Staircase

The second day of the VKFF Activation Weekend I headed to Cattai National ParkVKFF-0092 on the northern outskirts of the Sydney metropolitan area. The park lies on the southern bank of the Hawkesbury River in the suburb of Cattai. The park includes a popular camping area as well as outdoor facilities and a historic homestead (-33.558878, 150.892197).

My plan was to operate in the park all day with a late morning start after a late night the evening before. This went totally to plan. I arrived at the park (-33.547513, 150.899308) off Caddie Rd via Wisemans Ferry Rd at around 10:15am, purchased an entry ticket from the machine and continued deeper into the park. After passing some shelters I entered the camping zone (-33.553787, 150.892245) for a sticky beak. There were quite a lot of campers set up there and I decided the best place for me was away from there back at the shelters several hundred metres away. None of the covered shelters were being used so I set up at the very first one (-33.558514, 150.890148) locator QF56KK nearest to the wharf. This was ideal for setting up an antenna as there are large trees on opposite sides spaced about 20m on either side. The squid pole itself was mounted against a large wooden support used for the shelter, the width of a medium size tree. The ZS6BKW antenna was used for this activation.

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The KX3 was set up on a table under the shelter and I also had the FT100D as a backup but it wasn’t needed. First contact in the log was at 10:45am with Tony VK1VIC at Farrer Ridge Nature Reserve in the ACT. It seemed as though propagation on 40m would be reasonable. After this quick contact I took some time to set up the station and antenna properly for the day. Then I settled in for a session on 40m, hunting down any other park activators that came up which occupied the next half an hour. A further eight parks were worked and I was then operating on my own 40m frequency. There were plenty of chasers as far afield as VK5 and short skip was working too.

Adam VK2YK was activating Castle Hill lookout in Townsville and I was able to work him on 15m for my first SOTA contact of the day. Back to 40m and a stint on CW yielded four contacts. After that it was back to hunting for a bit and then I spotted on 15m SSB. After 15 mins making no contacts I moved on to 20m SSB for 15 mins then 20m CW for 15 mins but there were no contacts to be had. I had a break of 10 minutes for lunch until more activators started up. After an hour without a contact I stayed on 40m for an hour and there were seven more parks worked as well as two SOTA stations. The drought had broken. I self spotted on 40m SSB again and made some more contacts from that.

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When things became quiet on 40m I went up to 10m and found some contest stations to work on CW. They were mostly sending lightning fast and with my 10W I was able to work Japan, Vietnam and Hong Kong. All I had to do was send my normal signal report and my CQ zone of 30. Switching to 15m I found stations operating in the same CQ World-Wide DX CW contest and was able to crack Russia, Tuvalu and Brazil as well as Japan. It was one way of racking up contacts towards my goal of 44 uniques.

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After an hour in the contest there were more parks to work so it was back to 40m. Then I took a break to take photos for half an hour, visited the wharf. Upon return I self spotted on 7.144 announcing last calls and that seemed to trigger a run of hunters which kept me busy for twenty minutes. When the callers ran out I chased John VK6NU on 20m in Wandoo NP and rounded things out with a couple more parks in VK5. By then it was 5:45pm and I was mindful of the sign announcing gate closure at 6pm so it was a hurried closedown. I drove out of through the gate, parked and then walked back in. Kangaroos were clustered on the grassy areas and I also wanted to check the signage on the office building. It was unattended and indicated the park ranger is stationed at another site, probably the much larger Scheyville National Park.

Statistics

63 contacts (12 CW)

31 park-to-park contacts

3 SOTA contacts

8 DX/contest contacts

Bands: 40m, 20m, 15m, 10m

7 hours operating time

What a great weekend the inaugural VKFF Activation Weekend turned out to be. I’m looking forward to next year. Thanks for all the contacts:
VK1VIC/P,VK1DI/P,VK5FANA/P,VK2NP/M,VK4AAC/5,VK5PAS/P,VK8AR/P,VK3VTH/P,VK1AT/3,VK3PMG/P,VK2VW,VK3OF,VK2GAZ,VK4RF,VK4HA,VK5UK/3,VK5KPR/P,VK5ZGY/P,VK2YK/4,VK5HCF/P,VK3HRA,VK4RF,VK4HA,VK2YW,VK1VIC/P,VK3HN/P,VK1MA,VK1DI/P,VK5HCF/P,VK5EE/P,VK5HSX/2,VK1DA/2,VK1VIC/P,VK3TKK/P,VK3PF/P,VK3YAR,VK3DPG,VK2QR,VK5PAS/P,JA3YBK,XV9NPS,VR2XAN,VK3VTH/P,RT0C,7J1YAJ,T2XX,PT2CM,JR1MEG/1,VK3TST/P,VK3PF/P,VK3KAI/P,VK2HHA,VK3UH,VK7CW,VK3DBP,VK5BJE,VK5AV,VK5FGRY,VK5PL/P,VK5NFT,VK6NU/P,VK5LOL/P,VK5PET/P.

The second activation of the day after Sydney Harbour NP with 45 mins drive between the two was at Kamay Botany Bay National ParkVKFF-0048. The park is split into two sections on either side of the inlet to Botany Bay. The southern side at Kurnell incorporates the landing site for Captain Cook and has a very well developed and popular park. I headed for Cape Banks on the northern side in the suburb of La Perouse. This side also has the very popular tourist spot Bare Island.

The site is accessed by travelling to the end of Cape Banks Rd where there is a large carpark (-33.993246, 151.24961) and the base for the surf rescue helicopter. A southerly walk of 500m brought me to a spot for activating (-33.997961, 151.249171) just off the track to Cape Banks 300m further south. There is the New South Wales Golf Club and Cruwee Cove to the west.

Setting up was very easy as a stake in the ground was already present to support the squid pole. There are no large trees around as the area is rocky and sandy. The ZS6BKW doublet was set up oriented NW-SE. First contact was at 4:30pm (0530z) and was a park-to-park contact on 15m with Bob VK5FO in Ramco Pt Conservation Park VKFF-0930. Second contact was on 40m with Giles VK5GK at Mt George Conservation Park VKFF-0784. After that I self spotted on 40m and worked a further 22 stations in VK1,2,3,4 and 5 in under half an hour.

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A bunch of new park activators had come on the air so for the next half an hour I was hunting them for the all important park-to-park contacts and ended up with seven more. All were on 40m except for the 20m contact with Greg VK8GM operating as VK8AR in West Macdonnell NP VKFF-0532. About this time a chap wandered over from the golf course to find out what I was doing

Andrew VK1DA spotted me on 40m and another five contacts were made. With only an hour left I spotted on 20m SSB and made just 2 contacts there. Tuning around 20m I heard Peter VK3YE trying his kite-lifted antenna of 30m of wire. It made for an interesting contact having had some fun with kites and antennas myself. See the video.

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There were slim pickings on 20m with no further contacts even after spotting for a second time. I had made 39 contacts including 2 duplicates so still several short of the magic 44. Then I set up my FT100D allowing me to use more power. I went back to 40m, spotted there and started calling, but I had run out of hunters. I did make a SOTA contact with Nick VK2AOH on VK2/CT-006, my only CW contact. The last contact was on 20m answering a call by P29LL.

My appointment for the evening was looming so it was a quick shutdown and return to the car. I had made contacts with 37 unique stations so I have a good excuse to revisit the park for another activation. I do want to explore the track between Cape Banks and Bare Island including Henry Head.

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As a postscript to this outing, two and a half weeks later on Wed 16 Dec a tornado went through Kurnell with winds of 213km/h setting a new record for NSW. Much property was destroyed in its wake. It came from the south side to the north and would have passed close to the area that I was activating.